How to Get a Warning before Attaching Confidential Files to Your Outlook Email

It can bring out many troubles if you send confidential files to others via email in your Outlook. Therefore, this article will teach you how to get warned before you attach confidential files to your Outlook mail.

Perhaps you are keeping many confidential documents about your company. As we all know, confidential files are extremely significant. You should never send out any of them to others without permissions in that not only can it bring many troubles to your enterprise, but also it can directly result in your unemployment if the case is considerably severe. Therefore, you have to keep cautious to prevent sending confidential files. However, sometimes, human errors are inevitable. So, in order to better block this, you can utilize the following VBA code to let Outlook warn you every time when you may attach potentially confidential files.

Get a Warning before Attaching Confidential Files to Your Outlook Email

1. In the first place, launch your Outlook application.
2. Then in main Outlook window, press “Alt + F11” key buttons.
3. Next you will get access to Outlook VBA editor window successfully.
4. Now you need to open the “ThisOutlookSession” project.
5. Subsequently, copy and paste the following VBA codes into this project.

Public WithEvents objInspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
Public WithEvents objMail As Outlook.MailItem

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    Set objInspectors = Outlook.Application.Inspectors
End Sub

Private Sub objInspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Inspector)
    If Inspector.CurrentItem.Class = olMail Then
       Set objMail = Inspector.CurrentItem
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub objMail_AttachmentAdd(ByVal Attachment As Attachment)
    Dim strFile As String
    Dim objFileSystem As Object
    Dim strFilePath As String
    Dim objWordApp As Word.Application
    Dim objWordDocument As Word.Document
    Dim objSentence As Object
    Dim objWord As Object
    Dim strMsg As String
    Dim nResponse As Integer
 
    strFile = Attachment.DisplayName
 
    'Here we take Word document and text file as an example
    If InStr(LCase(strFile), "docx") > 0 Or InStr(LCase(strFile), "doc") > 0 Or InStr(LCase(strFile), "txt") > 0 Then
       Set objFileSystem = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
       strFilePath = objFileSystem.GetSpecialFolder(2).Path & "\" & Format(Now, "dd-mm-yyyy-hh-mm-ss") & Attachment.DisplayName
 
       Attachment.SaveAsFile strFilePath
       Set objWordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
       Set objWordDocument = objWordApp.Documents.Open(strFilePath)
       objWordDocument.Activate
 
       For Each objSentence In objWordDocument.StoryRanges
           For Each objWord In objSentence.Words
               'Check if contain specific words
               'You can change the following line as per your actual needs
               If objWord.Text = "DataNumen" Or objWord.Text = "Confidential" Then
                  strMsg = "The new attachment " & Chr(34) & Attachment.DisplayName & Chr(34) & " may contain confidential information. Are you sure to attach it?"
                  nResponse = MsgBox(strMsg, vbExclamation + vbYesNo, "Check Confidential File")
                  If nResponse = vbNo Then
                     Attachment.Delete
                  End If
               End If
               Exit For
          Next
       Next
    End If
End Sub

6. After that, you ought to sign this code.
7. Later confirm your Outlook macro settings to permit signed VBA projects.
8. Eventually you can restart your Outlook to activate the new macros.
9. From now on, every time when you attach the files which meet the criteria of confidential files, you will get a waring like the screenshot below:
10. If you select “Yes”, the file will be attached. If “No”, the file won’t be attached.

Avoid Miserable PST Problems

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Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including damaged mdf and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com